The use of prepared mixes has greatly simplified the task of preparing baked goods, in particular cakes which contain flour, sugar, shortening, leavening agents and other minor ingredients. To prepare them for use, the aqueous ingredients such as water, milk, or eggs are added to the mix and stirred to form a homogeneous batter. This is subsequently baked to produce a final product. The use of such mixes avoids the problem of assembling the various ingredients, measuring the desired quantities, and mixing them in specified portions.
When the culinary mixes designed for baking in a conventional oven, i.e. using radiant heat, are baked in a microwave oven, a dry, tough unacceptable cake is produced. When the cake batter is baked in a microwave oven using a square pan, the outer edges become dry and tough and the center is not completely baked.
Various methods have been used to compensate for the uneven baking in a microwave oven, for example, frequent turning of the cake during baking, elevating the pan from the floor of the oven, using round pans, etc. However, none of these methods provides a suitable way to prepare a moist, light, high cake using microwave radiant energy as the energy source. The addition of extra water or extra oil to the cake batter compensates somewhat for the dry, tough nature but the cake becomes unacceptably dense, small and collapsed. It has now been found that a cake formula that gives decidedly better results in a microwave oven-baked cake than current commercial cake mixes can be produced if the following conditions are met: the sugar and flour must be present in a ratio of 1.4:1 to about 2:1, preferably up to 80% of the total sugar is co-milled with the flour using a multi-impact mill; the shortening is present from about 0% to 16% of the total mix; the emulsifier level is in the range of from about 2% to about 10% by weight of the mix; and the leavening system is a combination of a leavening acid, preferably sodium aluminum phosphate and/or monocalcium phosphate, and a baking soda.
Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide packaged culinary mixes which can be made into baked goods which are more tender, have better eating qualities, and better appearance than products made from conventional mixes in the microwave oven.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a packaged culinary mix which will also produce an acceptable cake when baked in a conventional oven.
Other objects and advantageous features will be apparent from the following detailed description.